This extraordinary DVD lesson is filled with spectacular picking, detailed instruction and invaluable advice for aspiring bluegrass guitarists at all levels. Bryan Sutton thoughtfully and methodically lays out his tricks of the trade to help you play any tune and improve your flatpicking speed, power, timing and musicianship. Bryan addresses many of the problems that he sees in aspiring pickers, and passes along tips on how to keep your picking hand and arm tension-free and your fretting hand supple and quick. He provides drills and exercises, teaching an arsenal of licks, bends, double stops, slides and some other devices...

This DVD, along with volumes 2 & 3, are hands down the best available if you want to play authentic pre-war style blues slide guitar. Bob Brozman is an extraordinary player with an encyclopedic knowledge of the music. Bob’s incredible chops are vividly documented not only on this DVD but in the 26 recordings he has released since his first in 1981. Beyond the music, Bob is acknowledged as the world’s foremost authority on National guitars. His 1993 book, The History and Artistry of National Resonator Instruments, is the definitive work on the topic. Bob’s passion for pre-war blues...

Barre chords are a vitally important part of your ability to move beyond the third fret, play solid rhythm in all keys and get a wide variety of sounds through chord inversions. Happy de-mystifies these powerful chord shapes, providing tips on how toplay them cleanly and easily. You’ll learn basic chord theory, how to transpose from one key to another and how to play several chord progressions and songs, including Abilene and Stagolee. This dvd is a great beginning approach to learning the basics of guitar. Teacher decodes the myths surrounding barre chords and how they can be used...

If you love old standards like Autumn Leaves and Moonglow, but always thought only advanced guitarists could play jazz, you’ll love Fred’s easy-to-play jazz chord solos. In this lesson, you’ll learn six timeless tunes from start to finish: how to play backup while you sing them, and how to play a beautiful chord melody solo/instrumental for each song. The tunes are arranged for beginners, with very few difficult chords. Fred plays and sings each song, then goes over the tricky spots in each tune before playing it slower, on a split screen with close-ups of both hands. Best of...

Brazil has produced some of the most vibrant and exciting guitar music in the instrument’s history. In this lesson, Rick Udler discusses and demonstrates styles, techniques, and rhythms of Brazil’s great players. This is a unique opportunity for guitarists to delve into the beautiful sounds of this musical land. Rick begins by going over chords that are commonly used by Brazilian guitarists. He then teaches the accompaniment to singer/songwriter Gilberto Gil’s beautiful composition, A Paz, to illustrate the use of chords with open strings. A step-by-step analysis of Bossa Nova accompaniment in the Joao Gilberto style follows along with...

The beauty of the guitar is not necessarily based on advanced and highly technical playing skills. Interesting and unusual arrangements can be created with very simple ideas, as long as you have some knowledge and an elementary understanding of the guitar. On this DVD lesson, Happy takes some easy songs and shows you how to transform them into beautiful show pieces using interesting right-hand patterns, altered chords and chord substitutions, ornamentation, harmonized scales and other very basic but useful techniques. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll be able to do with the simplest folk songs. This is what you...

Al Petteway – Celtic Instrumentals For Fingerstyle Guitar #2 Alternate Tunings. Al Petteway continues his excellent lesson with five beautiful and evocative guitar instrumentals in the Celtic style. This time, he covers songs and effects that can be attained through a variety of tunings, including standard, dropped-D, open G and low C. Al shows you how to create your own arrangements by finding the melody within the chord structure, then fleshing it out with pipe-like drone notes, chord substitutions, moving bass lines, the rhythmic “Scottish Snap” and other Celtic-sounding elements. Embellishment techniques right hand rolls, hammers, pull-offs, etc help...

With a Jazz-Rock sound that is highly unique and widely appreciated, Steely Dan are one of the few bands to enjoy great commercial success with a brand of music that is anything but. Their style attracts listeners of all genres and is heralded by musicians of all backgrounds. One of the biggest indicators of their success has been their staying power as evidenced by the grammy they won almost thirty years since their debut. SongXpress is the fastest and easiest way to learn your favorite songs on guitar. It’s like having a good friend teach you in the comfort...

Johnny Cash left us a wonderful country songbook, and in this one-hour and twenty minute lesson Fred shows you how to play and sing eight of Cash’s most popular gems.You’ll learn to back yourself up singing, using basic fingerpicking patterns and first position chords, with lots of bass runs thrown in. You’ll also learn to fingerpick a solo for each tune. Fred grew up with Johnny Cash’s music, and his natural, easy arrangements suit the material and are easy to learn. After playing and singing each song, Fred goes over any tricky techniques or runs, then he plays the...

Tony McManus is an adept master of Celtic fingerstyle guitar, both in terms of adapting Celtic music to the guitar and in its performance – presenting all it intricacies, graces, and frills yet at the same time maintaining the pace and drive which characterises this style of music. Volume 1. In this first lesson, Tony discusses in detail the importance of ornamentations and triplets in Celtic music, and importantly, how this can be technically achieved. Scales and fingerings and playing in the DADGAD tuning are discussed and then illustrated with several melodies played in this dropped D tuning. This...